Table of Contents

In This Article:

Gail Gemell sheds light on the role of ethics in the workplace. This practical article not only brings home the importance of implementing a code of ethics in our organisations, but also shows us how to actually do it.

There is so much information written on ethics in the workplace. This article has been written with the intention of condensing the information in such a way that it will bring home the importance of ethics and point readers in the right direction.

Legislation to considerWhen addressing ethics or any other Human Resource related matter in the workplace, management must consider the influence or role of legislation. The obvious legislation to consider regarding ethics includes:

The constitution of RSA and the Bill of Rights

Basic Conditions of Employment Act

Labour Relations Act

Inside Trading Act

Other workplace legislation

Defining ethicsIn this fast-paced world it becomes ever easier to forget about such things as values and ethics – we don’t know whether a “gift” is a bribe or truly a gift. The Oxford Dictionary is not very good at explaining these two words, so one would have to look elsewhere.

The Teal Trust explains organisational values to be values defining the acceptable standards which govern the behaviour of individuals within the organisation. This can be confusing. Lussier (2002) explains ethics as, “the standards of right and wrong that influence behaviour”. Ethics is generallyknown to be about trust and doing whatis right.

There are five basic ethical principles:

Respect autonomy;

Do no harm;

Benefit others;

Be just;

Be faithful.

More in-depth explanationTo remove the confusion in explaining values and ethics, it would be advisable to look at the King Report on Corporate Governance in South Africa (2002). The main purpose of the King Report (1, 2 or 3) is to promote the highest standards of corporate governance in South Africa. The Institute of Directors formed the King Committee in 1992, a time of profound social and political transformation, and a time of re-admittance of South Africa into the world economy.

Chapter 3 of the King Report (2002) explains that, “ethical business conduct means that a company’s stakeholders – most notably its staff adhere to defined standards of behaviour in all business decisions and actions”.

Established ethical conduct within a company is a strong measure of organisational integrity and must be demonstrable in adherence. The report further elaborates that the company’s ethical principles should permeate the company culture, motivate strategy, business goals, polices, objectives and activities.